A glimpse on Frederick Douglass's slave narrative

 Mr. DOUGLASS has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in his own style, His narrative covers a time period of about 30 years from his birth in 1818 to the publication of his narrative in 1845 and spans across Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts .

He was born in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, to a slave, Harriet Bailey, and thus became the property of the slave owner Anthony. His father was a white man, but he never knew who he was. His birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, but he later changed his name to Frederick Douglass. He was taken away from his mother when he was a baby, as was the “common custom” at that time, “to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.” 

Frederick Douglass was self-educated and wrote his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to expose the atrocities of slavery and according to the best of his ability, rather than to employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to run as a slave,--how few have been his opportunities to improve his mind since he broke his iron fetters.

 This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power. In his narratives, Douglass offers the readers with fast hand information of the pain, brutality, and humiliation of the slaves.

The slavery institution was harsh for the Africans especially women who were regularly raped, and forced to bear their masters children and if they declined, they were maimed or killed. He notes that, the slavery institution made them forget about their origin, and anything else that entails their past, and even when they were born.

 The slaves has to forgot everything about their families, and none knew about their family because, they were torn from them without any warning. Douglass had to witness the whipping of his aunt, a thing that he looks back with great pity. The slaves were brutally treated, being beaten day in day out with no good reason. 

Although Douglass was a slave, his mind was not enslaved. He believes the only way man can be slaved is by remaining ignorant. The white slave owners not only physically dominated the slaves but also mentally dominated them by imbedding fear and denying education. Learning is “the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Education sows the first seeds of freedom in his mind and he becomes infatuated with the idea of being a free man, in addition Douglass continued to fight for abolition of slavery and for an end to racial discrimination.

The narrative covers a time period of about three decades, and gives details as to who Frederick was, when and where his story took place, what he did, why he escaped and how he succeeded, and which course he took as a free man.